law

The legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder lives on in a new book called “Pioneer Girl Perspectives: Exploring Laura Ingalls Wilder.” We’re joined by editor Nancy Tystad Koupal.

We preview this weekend’s No Cover, No Minimum Radio with music from Dusty Heart, recorded at the Sioux River Folk Festival. No Cover, No Minimum Radio airs on Saturday at 9 p.m. Central, 8 Mountain and Sunday at 11 p.m. Central, 10 Mountain.

One of South Dakota’s US Senators says Congress is more dysfunctional than he realized. Mike Rounds started his term in January; he spent part of his time back in South Dakota Tuesday talking to members of the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce. Rounds says lawmakers must take pointed steps to make federal systems more efficient.

United States Senator Mike Rounds has been talking about a broken Washington since he started his campaign for Congress. Less than one year since he took the oath, Rounds says the system is worse than he suspected. He says lawmaking is slow by design.

Three people who represent South Dakota in the nation’s capital are reacting to a US Supreme Court decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act. Thursday six of the nine justices agreed that people are still eligible for insurance subsidies using a federal health insurance exchange. Thirty-four states do not have state-run marketplaces.

It’s not often that a 6-year old gets to meet the Governor. It’s even less frequent that they get to do so as the originator of a new piece of state legislation. But that’s exactly what’s happening today as Hadley Gjerde and her parents travel to Pierre to witness Gov. Dennis Daugaard sign “The Hadley Bill” into law.

When Roy Gjerde’s daughter asked why she and her cousins couldn’t use fireworks when they came to visit after Independence Day, his answer was yet another example of the often cold, hard truth of the law…because it’s illegal.

Selection began Wednesday in a Sioux Falls courtroom for jurors who will decide the fate of confessed killer James McVay. The state is seeking the death penalty for McVay who pleaded guilty but mentally ill to first-degree murder in the July 2011 stabbing death of 75 year-old Maybelle Schein. McVay stole Schein’s car and drove it to Madison, Wisconsin where he was apprehended. McVay later told investigators that Schein’s killing was part of a plot to rob and kill his way to Washington, DC where he would assassinate President Obama.

Nancy Robrahn and Jennie Rosenkranz are a Rapid City couple who plan to challenge South Dakota's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. They attempted to get a marriage license at the Pennington County Courthouse last week, but were denied. The couple, together for 27 years, will get married in Minneapolis next month where same-sex marriage is legal. When Robrahn and Rosenkranz return to South Dakota they'll file a lawsuit challenging the state for not recognizing their marriage certificate.

South Dakota would become the last state in the nation to make animal cruelty a felony under a bill that received the legislature's final approval Tuesday. The House voted 54-15 to pass the measure, which was approved earlier by the Senate. It will become law if signed by Governor Dennis Daugaard. Similar bills have failed in past years amid fears they could interfere with the livestock industry, but this year's measure was written in a cooperative effort led by State Veterinarian Dustin Oedekoven.

During his State of the Judiciary message before a joint session of the House and Senate Wednesday, South Dakota Supreme Court Justice David Gilbertson said the court system is expanding existing programs and starting new ones to treat more non-violent offenders outside of prison. Those programs include courts for drug and alcohol offenders and pilot courts for some military veterans charged with misdemeanors. The changes are part of a Criminal Justice Reform measure passed by lawmakers last year and signed by Governor Dennis Daugaard.

Donald Dahlin, emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Dakota, visits about his new book, "We the People: A Brief Introduction to the Constitution and Its Interpretation." The book was an idea that Dahlin developed a couple of years ago when he decided that the constitution is such an important document that it deserved an objective approach. Instead of selling an interpretation, Dahlin hopes the reader will make his or her own judgments regarding constitutional issues.

Tonight (October 15, 2012) at 10:00 PM Eric Robert is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. During the execution the media will await witness statements in the Ronald J. Johnson training center. The place named for the victim of Robert’s Crime. Attorney General Marty Jackley has already spoken this morning to the family of Robert “RJ” Johnson. Johnson was murdered during a failed escape attempt last April of 2011.

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